GreenLight Fund Invests $1M to Combat Chronic Absenteeism in Oakland

Center for Supportive Schools’ Peer Group Connection model will reach 7,000+ students across Oakland schools, reducing chronic absenteeism and student disengagement.

OAKLAND, CA – August 10, 2026 – Nonprofit funder GreenLight Fund Bay Area announces a $1 million multi-year investment to bring Center for Supportive Schools (CSS) to Oakland. Center for Supportive Schools, a nationally recognized educational nonprofit, will partner with Oakland schools to uplift and empower students through their evidence-based, in-school, Peer Group Connection (PGC) mentoring program. Over the next four years CSS will reach over 7,200 students, equipping youth to become lifelong leaders and reducing chronic absenteeism rates in Oakland schools. 

GreenLight Fund’s model centers around a community-driven process that brings together residents, nonprofits, philanthropy, and government to identify local service gaps and opportunities. Through this process, chronic absenteeism emerged as a top priority in Oakland where 32.2% of Oakland Unified School District students and 22.7% of charter school students were chronically absent, or missing at least two days of school a month, in the 2024-25 school year (CDE). 

Center for Supportive Schools’ PGC model uses peer-to-peer mentorship to dramatically reduce chronic absenteeism and foster a positive school culture. “What really stood out about CSS’s Peer Group Connection model was how it supports students during the critical transition to middle and high school by training upperclassmen to become peer mentors,” said Kate Schwass, executive director of GreenLight Fund Bay Area. “CSS meets students at exactly the moment they are most vulnerable to disengagement in school.”

CSS provides faculty with the training, tools and resources necessary to deliver a year-long, credit-bearing leadership course where upperclassmen learn how to support incoming 6th and 9th graders. Trained peer leaders then engage with younger students through a series of weekly outreach sessions with the aim of increasing their sense of connectedness and improving skills in help-seeking, goal-setting, and decision-making, overall supporting positive school-related behaviors. 

Matthew Mazzaroppi, district superintendent in the New York Bronx and former principal, said, “PGC is the single most transformational initiative we have implemented in our school. The training facilitated by CSS for this program was the best training I have been to as an educator. Not only did I learn, practice, and internalize several of the skills needed to make the program successful, but I also found that it relit my passion to walk into the everyday wind a principal faces for the sake of empowering students.”

A 2018 longitudinal study on 32 schools implementing the PGC program found that 9th grade students and upperclassmen peer leaders who participated in PGC attended school an average of 6 more days than non-participants. Students also reported caring more about graduating from high school, being more connected to peers, and feeling like they belong at school. Attendance rates were sustained a full year after completion of PGC. 

CSS is recognized by the National Dropout Prevention Center as a “Model Program” demonstrating “strong evidence of effectiveness”, and by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) as a SELect program, its highest program rating. 

“Center for Supportive Schools is thrilled to bring Peer Group Connection to the Bay Area and to partner with GreenLight Fund in service of the young people in Oakland. For nearly five decades, CSS has worked alongside schools to build peer relationships that motivate students to show up and ensure that they thrive. We have seen PGC transform school culture and dramatically reduce chronic absenteeism in communities across the country, and we cannot wait to see what Oakland students are capable of when given the tools and support they need,” said Jonathan D. Mathis, Center for Supportive Schools CEO. 

Over four years, CSS will work with school administrators across 10 Oakland schools to train more than 1,100 peer leaders and connect them with over 6,100 incoming 6th and 9th graders. Center for Supportive Schools has established an initial partnership with the Education for Change charter school network in Oakland.

Nicki Fox, Principal of Learning Without Limits, an Education for Change school, said, “At Learning Without Limits, one of our core beliefs is that relationships and values are at the center of everything we do. Center for Supportive Schools puts that belief into practice by creating meaningful connections across grade levels and giving students authentic opportunities to lead, mentor, and learn from one another. One of my favorite parts is hearing our 1st graders talk about how they can’t wait to become 5th grade Peer Leaders so they can support younger students the way their own Peer Leaders supported them. Peer Group Connection is shaping our school culture by giving students opportunities to live out our values of caring and leadership every day, with and for each other.”

During a CSS community showcase in Oakland, a PGC student leader shared, “One of the things that I was most happy about…is working with freshmen who just transitioned from middle school… and help[ing] guide them towards a future where they can feel comfortable and flourish in their lives.”

This is GreenLight Bay Area’s ninth investment. Other organizations GreenLight Fund Bay Area has brought to the Bay include Urban Peace Institute, Food Connect, Everyone On, Springboard Collaborative, ParentChild+, Blueprint Math Fellows, uAspire, and Genesys Works.